Jolly good
From The GIST Sports Biz (hi@thegistsports.com)
Happy Friday!
And there’s so much to celebrate thanks to the 50th anniversary of Billie Jean King’s Women's Sports Foundation and the subsequent $5.5M pledge from PWHL and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter. Serve up a slice of cake because women’s sports are always the moment.
Women’s basketball
🏀 Hoop there it is
The GIST: Unrivaled, the new 3x3 league founded by WNBA superstars (and current Finals opponents) Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, inked an exclusive multiyear media deal with TNT on Wednesday.
- The network is looking to strengthen its sports portfolio in the midst of (likely) losing NBA media rights, while Unrivaled’s inaugural season will tip off in January 2025 with an influx of cash and primetime TV slots. A match made in hoops heaven.
The league: Unrivaled will split 30 marquee players into six teams to compete in an eight-week regular season and a four-team playoff tournament. Even better? The league boasts the highest average salaries in women’s sports history and all 30 founding players will receive equity ownership.
The deal: The exact financial details were not disclosed, but TNT will broadcast 45 primetime regular-season games on Mondays and Fridays, providing stability and financial security for players and stakeholders alike. Content will also be distributed on TNT platforms — including Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, and HighlightHER — to further amplify the new league’s reach.
The context: Simply put, investing in women’s basketball is good business. The boom in viewership for women’s hoops has been astronomical: 2024’s women’s March Madness tournament final brought in a record 18.7M viewers with WNBA attendance and viewership also sitting at a two-decade high after an extremely successful season.
- The appetite for 3x3 basketball is peaking too: The sport’s Olympic women’s final between Spain and Germany recorded an average of 1.9M viewers, while engagement with digital media related to the sport showed 613% growth from Tokyo 2020.
Zooming out: Unrivaled’s exclusive TNT contract starkly contrasts the WNBA’s recent $2.2B media rights deal with multiple platforms. Utilizing many media partners can expand a league’s reach, but exclusivity provides fans with an accessible, one-stop shop for games. For a new league like Unrivaled, this could be just the boon it needs to grow its fanbase. Count it.
NIL
💰 Work hard, play hard
The GIST: Title IX was passed in 1972 to ensure the equal treatment of women and men at publicly funded institutions, but in the business of college sports, an astounding 93% of schools are not in compliance with the bill. Inspired by a recent panel discussion from Front Office Sports, let’s break down a piece of the NCAA’s gender disparity pie — NIL.
The context: There are two types of NIL deals — commercial and collective. Commercial NIL consists primarily of brand deals while collectives are donor-driven and make up 90% of the $1.67B generated by NIL, per Blake Lawrence of Opendorse.
- Collective dollars mirror revenue trends in college sports: According to Lawrence, football receives 75% of the money from NIL collectives, with men’s basketball being the next-biggest beneficiary.
- In short, collectives exacerbate the already-existing inequities in women’s and men’s collegiate sports, almost functioning as a workaround to Title IX…and the lawsuits have already started to roll in.
Going deeper: Despite the collective discrepancy, women athletes are averaging more NIL commercial deals than their male peers and comprise 58% of all NIL action. But there’s an added wrinkle: There’s no additional work with collectives, athletes simply receive money akin to a salary, whereas commercial deals require making posts and working with a brand, among other things.
- So, if women athletes are working more for less (shocking!), then what’s the silver lining? The intangible life skills women athletes receive through commercial deals: Women student-athletes are learning to leverage social media and create value for a brand, while also becoming a brand themselves in a way their male counterparts typically aren’t.
Looking forward: And it isn’t just NIL facing Title IX implications — with House v. NCAA on the cusp of approval, revenue sharing is poised to shake up collegiate sports. If assets are equally shared across men and women per Title IX, it’d be the biggest wealth creation in women’s sports history, providing programs and athletes with an additional influx of cash. Sing it, Hannah.
Together With The GIST
🎉 Snag your limited edition “Bet on Women” tee
It takes a village to level the playing field, but turns out, our village is 1 million GISTers strong — so it’s time to celebrate. To commemorate reaching the 1 million subscriber mark, we’ve launched a limited edition “Bet on Women” t-shirt collection that honors power, strength, and resilience.
- Click here to pre-order your shirts and let the world know: When you bet on women, everyone wins.
🏀 Aforementioned NY Liberty superstar Breanna Stewart plans to only ink one-year deals until the WNBA has a new CBA in place. Betting on herself.
🎤 Chiney Ogwumike signed a four-year extension with ESPN, becoming the first woman to work full time across both NBA Countdown and WNBA Countdown.
😡 A new study revealed abusive social media posts spike during March Madness, with women’s basketball athletes receiving triple the number of online threats as men’s players.
⚽ NWSL expansion team BOS Nation FC issued an apology for the controversial promotional campaign it released earlier this week.
👏 Therese Sjögran was appointed Manchester City’s new women’s director of football to replace Nils Nielsen, who is stepping down to return to coaching. Jolly good.
🧡 Dick’s Sporting Goods and the University of Tennessee announced a multiyear extension that will keep the company engaged with the school’s community initiatives.
💸 The All-WNBA first and second team rosters were announced this week, with first team honorees earning $10.3K while second team hoopers banked $5.15K.
📰 Reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson and Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese graced the cover of WSJ. Magazine for an article about the league’s record-breaking season. Easy, breezy, beautiful.
Together With Boardroom
Co-founded by NBA star Kevin Durant and entrepreneur Rich Kleiman, Boardroom is a media network that covers the business of sports, music, and entertainment. From emerging leagues (pickleball, anyone?) to new tech, they’re committed to offering a unique perspective on how athletes, musicians, creators, and executives are moving the business world forward.
- Sign up for their daily newsletter, HeadlineToGo, to get an inside look at the Boardroom universe.
Recs from our roster!
📲 What to download
Spill. Supported by actor Kerry Washington, this Black-owned social media platform builds community in a space where marginalized groups are prioritized.
🏀 What to read
This article on the pressure surrounding Cathy Engelbert. The WNBA commissioner is lifting the league to new heights, but is she fully seizing the moment?
🎥 What to watch
A Radical Act, the new doc about Renee Montgomery's journey from WNBA star to co-owner and activist. This must-see film is now streaming on the Roku Channel.
Today's email was brought to you by Lisa Minutillo and Briana Ekanem. Fact checking by Bonnie Lee. Editing by Dee Lab. Operations by Elisha Gunaratnam and Lisa Minutillo. Ads by Katie Kehoe Foster and Alessandra Puccio. Managing edits by Molly Potter and Ellen Hyslop.